Throughout the centuries, there have been many different ideas about how people learn. People who come up with ways that they believe others learn are called learning theorists, and it seems that they come in three different categories. Behavioral learning is the idea that human (and animal) learning occurs only through behavioral changes and discounts any mental changes. Cognitivism focus strictly on the brain and that learning is dependent upon the storing and processing of information. Constructivism is based on the idea that learners need to construct their own meaning in order to learn. I have chosen three learning theorists from each category to compare and contrast in this essay. First I chose Edward Thorndike as my behavioral theorist. Thorndike's learning theory is called Connectionism. Thorndike explains that humans learn best by connecting behaviors with good or bad results. Positive reinforcement will strengthen a learner's connection to a behavior and cause that behavior to become a habit. Negative reinforcement, for example withholding an award, will cause a person's connection to a behavior to become weaker and discourage that behavior. In this way, teachers mainly use tests as assessments of learning and use grades as rewards or lack of reward to change behaviors. A person's intelligence becomes a function of how many connections are learned. Like cognitivism, behavioral learning requires an instructor to construct the learning process and guide the students learning. Conversely, in behavioral theory, the student also requires outside stimuli provided by the instructor in order to learn. Like all of the theories I will be discussing, students learn through practice and repetition. Next is Lev Vygotsky, whose Social Development Theory falls under cognitivism. Vygotsky believes that people learn best by watching other people. Like Connectionism, students need an instructor or peers to help guide their learning. Vygotsky focused mainly on language learning and described how children learn language from watching and listening to others speak and react to language. Unlike Connectionism, students are not only passive learners but are also active learners. This means that while they require an instructor to create their learning process, the students also are involved in their own learning. Because of the necessity of social interaction for learning, culture has a huge influence on learning, according to Vygotsky. Another important part of Vygotsky's theory is the zone of proximal development. According to the Social Development Theory, the zone of proximal development is the distance between what a child can learn with guidance from peers or an adult and what a child can learn independently. Vygotsky believes that this zone is where optimal learning occurs. Cooperative learning activities are extremely conducive to learning according to this learning theory because students can learn from the modeling of their peers. My final learning theorist falls under the constructivism category. Jerome Bruner developed the Discovery Learning theory. With this type of learning, students learn best by discovering relationships and understanding for themselves. Learning is strictly an active process as students use experiences and previous knowledge to discover new understanding. Bruner believes that unlike using grades or other rewards as motivation through behaviorism, constructivism causes students to seek out knowledge and understanding on their own and they therefore have a higher motivation for learning. With Discovery Learning, students must actively find solutions to problems which not only helps them learn new material, but also forces them to practice and hone their problem solving and higher-order thinking skills. Truly following the Discovery Learning model requires instructors to allow students to learn at their own pace. This contradicts the typical sequencing of lessons and units and instead gives the learner ownership of their own learning. Since Discovery Learning is more than the teacher presenting knowledge and requires the student to actively participate in the process of learning, Bruner believes that this allows students to go beyond information that the teacher to give and reach a higher understanding of the material. In conclusion, I believe that all three learning theorists have a part of the complete explanation for how students learn. From my own experience with students, I see that discovery learning does indeed help students with problem solving skills and higher order thinking skills because they have to use these skills to come up with new ideas. Also, the desire to know and learn more is strongest with discovery learning. However, what that theory alone is lacking is the learning from modeling of peers and instructor and the motivation and behavior changes gained by positive and negative reinforcement. For example, while I have my students use discovery learning to come up with new relationships between objects in geometry, I also need to model using those relationships to solve problems and I have students work together to help each other understand how to solve problems. Finally, students are very receptive to positive reinforcement. Since problem solving and discovery learning takes a lot of effort and risk taking, students can get down on themselves if they are not immediately successful. Positive reinforcement from me helps to establish a relationship of trust between my students and me and also gives students encouragement to continue taking risks and learning from failures or mistakes. All in all, I truly believe that each theorist has extremely useful ideas and taking a little bit from each one is the best way for teachers to help their students to learn. Resources: (cited by http://www.citationmachine.net/)
Cullatta, Richard. "Social Development Theory (Lev Vygotsky)." Social Development Theory. Instructionaldesign.org, 2015. Web. 09 Sept. 2016.
"Constructivist Theory (Jerome Bruner)." Constructivist Theory. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Sept. 2016. "Discovery Learning (Bruner) - Learning Theories." Learning Theories. N.p., 2016. Web. 09 Sept. 2016. "Connectionism (Edward Thorndike)." Connectionism. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Sept. 2016. By Distributing Practices the Learner Associates the Material with Many Different Contexts Rather than the One Context Afforded by Mass Practice. "Learning Theories." Teaching and Learning Resources /. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Sept. 2016. McLeod, Saul. "Lev Vygotsky." Vygotsky. N.p., 2016. Web. 09 Sept. 2016. Pappas, Christopher. "Instructional Design Models and Theories: Connectionism Theory." ELearning Industry RSS. N.p., 2014. Web. 09 Sept. 2016. Pappas, Christopher. "Instructional Design Models and Theories: The Discovery Learning Model." ELearning Industry RSS. N.p., 2014. Web. 09 Sept. 2016.
Throughout the centuries, there have been many different ideas about how people learn. People who come up with ways that they believe others learn are called learning theorists, and it seems that they come in three different categories. Behavioral learning is the idea that human (and animal) learning occurs only through behavioral changes and discounts any mental changes. Cognitivism focus strictly on the brain and that learning is dependent upon the storing and processing of information. Constructivism is based on the idea that learners need to construct their own meaning in order to learn. I have chosen three learning theorists from each category to compare and contrast in this essay.
First I chose Edward Thorndike as my behavioral theorist. Thorndike's learning theory is called Connectionism. Thorndike explains that humans learn best by connecting behaviors with good or bad results. Positive reinforcement will strengthen a learner's connection to a behavior and cause that behavior to become a habit. Negative reinforcement, for example withholding an award, will cause a person's connection to a behavior to become weaker and discourage that behavior. In this way, teachers mainly use tests as assessments of learning and use grades as rewards or lack of reward to change behaviors. A person's intelligence becomes a function of how many connections are learned. Like cognitivism, behavioral learning requires an instructor to construct the learning process and guide the students learning. Conversely, in behavioral theory, the student also requires outside stimuli provided by the instructor in order to learn. Like all of the theories I will be discussing, students learn through practice and repetition.
Next is Lev Vygotsky, whose Social Development Theory falls under cognitivism. Vygotsky believes that people learn best by watching other people. Like Connectionism, students need an instructor or peers to help guide their learning. Vygotsky focused mainly on language learning and described how children learn language from watching and listening to others speak and react to language. Unlike Connectionism, students are not only passive learners but are also active learners. This means that while they require an instructor to create their learning process, the students also are involved in their own learning. Because of the necessity of social interaction for learning, culture has a huge influence on learning, according to Vygotsky. Another important part of Vygotsky's theory is the zone of proximal development. According to the Social Development Theory, the zone of proximal development is the distance between what a child can learn with guidance from peers or an adult and what a child can learn independently. Vygotsky believes that this zone is where optimal learning occurs. Cooperative learning activities are extremely conducive to learning according to this learning theory because students can learn from the modeling of their peers.
My final learning theorist falls under the constructivism category. Jerome Bruner developed the Discovery Learning theory. With this type of learning, students learn best by discovering relationships and understanding for themselves. Learning is strictly an active process as students use experiences and previous knowledge to discover new understanding. Bruner believes that unlike using grades or other rewards as motivation through behaviorism, constructivism causes students to seek out knowledge and understanding on their own and they therefore have a higher motivation for learning. With Discovery Learning, students must actively find solutions to problems which not only helps them learn new material, but also forces them to practice and hone their problem solving and higher-order thinking skills. Truly following the Discovery Learning model requires instructors to allow students to learn at their own pace. This contradicts the typical sequencing of lessons and units and instead gives the learner ownership of their own learning. Since Discovery Learning is more than the teacher presenting knowledge and requires the student to actively participate in the process of learning, Bruner believes that this allows students to go beyond information that the teacher to give and reach a higher understanding of the material.
In conclusion, I believe that all three learning theorists have a part of the complete explanation for how students learn. From my own experience with students, I see that discovery learning does indeed help students with problem solving skills and higher order thinking skills because they have to use these skills to come up with new ideas. Also, the desire to know and learn more is strongest with discovery learning. However, what that theory alone is lacking is the learning from modeling of peers and instructor and the motivation and behavior changes gained by positive and negative reinforcement. For example, while I have my students use discovery learning to come up with new relationships between objects in geometry, I also need to model using those relationships to solve problems and I have students work together to help each other understand how to solve problems. Finally, students are very receptive to positive reinforcement. Since problem solving and discovery learning takes a lot of effort and risk taking, students can get down on themselves if they are not immediately successful. Positive reinforcement from me helps to establish a relationship of trust between my students and me and also gives students encouragement to continue taking risks and learning from failures or mistakes. All in all, I truly believe that each theorist has extremely useful ideas and taking a little bit from each one is the best way for teachers to help their students to learn.
Resources: (cited by http://www.citationmachine.net/)
Cullatta, Richard. "Social Development Theory (Lev Vygotsky)." Social Development Theory. Instructionaldesign.org, 2015. Web. 09 Sept. 2016.
"Constructivist Theory (Jerome Bruner)." Constructivist Theory. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Sept. 2016.
"Discovery Learning (Bruner) - Learning Theories." Learning Theories. N.p., 2016. Web. 09 Sept. 2016.
"Connectionism (Edward Thorndike)." Connectionism. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Sept. 2016.
By Distributing Practices the Learner Associates the Material with Many Different Contexts Rather than the One Context Afforded by Mass Practice. "Learning Theories." Teaching and Learning Resources /. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Sept. 2016.
McLeod, Saul. "Lev Vygotsky." Vygotsky. N.p., 2016. Web. 09 Sept. 2016.
Pappas, Christopher. "Instructional Design Models and Theories: Connectionism Theory." ELearning Industry RSS. N.p., 2014. Web. 09 Sept. 2016.
Pappas, Christopher. "Instructional Design Models and Theories: The Discovery Learning Model." ELearning Industry RSS. N.p., 2014. Web. 09 Sept. 2016.